African American English and the Achievement Gap: The Role of Dialectal Code Switching / Edition 1

ISBN-13: 9780415743860 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Publication date: 03/01/2016 Series: Routledge Research in Education , #164 Edition description: New Edition Pages: 192 Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) Many African American children make use of African American English (AAE) in their everyday lives, and face academic barriers when introduced to Standard American English (SAE) in the classroom. Research has shown that students who can adapt and use SAE for academic purposes demonstrate significantly better test scores than their less adaptable peers. Accordingly, AAE use and its confirmed inverse relationship to reading achievement have been implicated in the Black-White Test Score Gap, thus becoming the focus of intense research and practical interest.This volume discusses dialectal code-switching from AAE to SAE and stresses the benefits and importance of African American students becoming bi-dialectal. It provides background theory and science supporting the most pr